"Astrid…"
"I don't remember us being that close," I stated coldly, watching the water drip from her black cloak.
She stood completely still, trembling slightly.
"If I remember correctly, these were the last words you said to me: 'I can't associate with someone like you. In Lucratis, there's no place for the weak, and even less for someone useless.'"
Her eyes began to cloud with tears.
"They're going to kill me, Cassian… Prince Bastian is dead."
A heavy silence fell over the room after her words. I simply stared at her without saying anything, letting the sound of the rain be the only thing filling the space.
That uncomfortable silence stretched on, marking the insurmountable distance that now existed between us.
Right at that moment, Adela seemed to hear something and entered to check.
The instant her eyes met Astrid's, sparks flew immediately.
"What is this woman doing here?" Adela asked, her voice dripping with venom.
She began gathering mana in her hands, ready to attack the princess. Astrid dodged in surprise; she knew Adela wasn't much older than her, yet she felt she could barely withstand even a brief exchange with her.
"Adela, stop," I said, trying to prevent my sleeping quarters from turning into a battlefield.
She didn't seem to want to listen.
When I saw Adela starting to pour even more power into her attack on Astrid—knowing the disastrous consequences it would have on the surroundings—I stopped her cold.
I made it impossible to use mana in this room; a technique I had learned shortly after arriving in this world, one I knew would prove useful.
Astrid, feeling her mana suddenly vanish, began to panic. She looked around desperately, searching for the cause of that sudden emptiness while keeping a wary eye on Adela in case she regained the initiative.
Adela froze, staring at her own hands in frustration. The silence that followed was absolute, broken only by the sound of rain hammering against the glass.
Now, without the noise of magic, the tension in the room became purely physical.
"Enough," I declared, my voice ringing with an authority that allowed no argument.
Finally, I regained the attention of both women in the room.
"Adela, prepare a bed for Astrid," I ordered, cutting through the tension. "We'll talk about this more calmly in the morning."
Adela looked at me with a grimace of disgust, clearly unhappy about having to serve the woman who had once despised me.
She turned around with a heavy sigh and began looking for clean sheets, throwing one last icy glare at the princess of Lucratis.
Astrid, for her part, collapsed into a chair, exhausted and soaked, as the weight of Prince Bastian's death and her own escape seemed to crush her now that the immediate threat from Adela had passed.
"Thank you, Cassian…" she murmured, her voice barely audible.
I didn't reply. I simply continued watching the rain beyond the glass.
…
Meanwhile, in the throne room of Demor.
"What did you say? Repeat what you just said," roared the Emperor, his voice echoing off the marble walls.
"My lord… Prince Bastian was assassinated during the night."
"You're telling me someone dared to kill an imperial prince inside this very palace…" The pressure of the Emperor's mana began cracking the floor beneath his throne. "Who did it?"
"It appears to have been the princess of Lucratis, Your Majesty."
Upon hearing those words, the Emperor began to lose control in his rage.
"And where is she? I assume she's already been captured," he said with murderous coldness.
"About that…" The informant lowered his head, trembling. "She managed to escape the palace under the storm. There's no trace of her."
The Emperor's face darkened completely. At that moment, one of his ministers stepped forward cautiously.
"Your Majesty knows what this means, don't you?"
Alric's expression grew even grimmer.
…
In Lucratis, a couple sat upon two majestic thrones that looked as if they had been carved from dragon fire and the blood of a thousand battles.
The woman was a familiar figure: that cold presence who executed her officials and servants at the slightest mistake.
"Your Majesties, urgent news has arrived from Demor."
Upon hearing the name of an empire far weaker than theirs paired with the word "urgent," the man looked at the informant with obvious annoyance.
The speaker hesitated upon seeing his reaction, but knew that at this point, silence would be worse.
"Princess Astrid… has killed the prince to whom she was betrothed."
The Empress raised an eyebrow with interest. It seemed her daughter had found some courage somewhere.
The Emperor, however, did not take those words lightly.
"Prepare the army and notify the mages and warriors of the eighth and ninth circles who are currently outside the empire. A war is about to break out."
A minister who was listening to the order dared to interrupt:
"But, Your Majesty, the Legacy is drawing closer. Even though we only control a few entrances, shouldn't we focus on that? A war right now…"
"We are eliminating competitors, Powell," the Emperor declared. "The next one to reach the ninth circle—or even surpass it—will belong to our empire."
…
Unaware of the storm brewing outside, Cassian ate breakfast calmly while his companion shifted restlessly, forcing herself to eat something.
He had sent Adela away to handle other matters; he didn't want a repeat of the previous incident.
"They're going to start looking for me everywhere… it's possible a war will break out because of this," she murmured.
"Yes, and yet you still chose to do it," Cassian replied without stopping eating.
She lowered her gaze, overwhelmed by guilt, but her eyes soon regained a spark of determination.
"What else could I do? I wasn't going to let others decide my future. Even if you decide not to help me, Cassian, I won't turn myself in. From now on, I want to live for myself."
Hearing those words, I couldn't help but think about myself.
She had always carried the expectations everyone around her placed on her, always influenced by the people who raised her.
In my case, although there was no one in particular who raised me, there had been people who influenced me to take on an ever greater burden of responsibilities.
"I'm not going to hand you over," Cassian said coldly. "I don't mind selfish people; I understand perfectly why you did what you did. But helping you…"
He let out a long sigh, as if accepting an inevitable burden.
"You can stay here until you find a way to get out of the capital."
She looked at him, silently understanding that they would never return to what they had been three years ago.
He would help her now, yes, but it wasn't the same as back then.
Observing him more closely, Astrid felt a strange emptiness: it was as if she had never truly known the person standing in front of her.
For Cassian, however, it felt as if he had returned to those moments. It seemed that one could never truly change, no matter where they were.